The charge, he said, was that the defendant had published a false and malicious libel against Mr.Oscar Wilde.

The libel was in the form of a card which Lord Queensberry had left at a club to which Mr.Oscar Wilde belonged: it could not be justified unless the statements written on the card were true.

It would, however, have been possible to have excused the card by a strong feeling, a mistaken feeling, on the part of a father, but the plea which the defendant had brought before the Court raised graver issues.

He said that the statement was true and was made for the public benefit.

There were besides a series of accusations in the plea (everyone held his breath), mentioning names of persons, and it was said with regard to these persons that Mr.Wilde had solicited them to commit a grave offence and that he had been guilty with each and all of them of indecent practices...." My heart seemed to stop.